Canon Extender 1.4 x II or 2 x extender

[goldcoaster1]

I have a canon 28 - 300mm f3.5 - 5.6L IS USM Lens need more focal Length for Surfing Shots. Has anyone used an Extender on this size Lens. Pros & Cons, can't afford a bigger lens. Thanks in anticipation.

[WooD]

If it would work at all, I'd bet you would loose auto focus.

AF is a necessity for surf shots.

[Jim Bryant]

not to mention it'll cut your light. instead of having your f-stop range you'll be getting an aperture of 4.5 - 8.0 with the (1/4 extender) and 7.0 to 11.2 with the 2x. Hope you plan on taking those surf shots on a sunny day, otherwise you'll have to shoot in slow shutter speeds or increase your ISO.

[inkista]

Hate to say it, but I wouldn't go there. Especially with a superzoom. The image quality hit you get with a TC is bad enough with a prime. And even if you find a way around the autofocus issue, like taping the pins, or using a 3rd party tc, the AF performance takes a serious hit. When I used a Tamron 1.4x tc on my el-cheapo 75-300 III (non-USM), I was manually focusing faster than the AF system could lock on. And even on my 400L, the autofocus still hunts and chatters a bit, especially if the subject is backlit.

[Jim Bryant]

I get good quality using the 1.4 and 2x with my 70-200 and with the prime 300mm 2. 8 and 400mm 2.8 lenses, but these are the L series and the extenders are canon, but still it does cut the light.

[rediguana]

You can use a 1.4x extender and keep AF as long as you're using a 1D series camera - these can AF down to f8, where as all other Canon bodies stop at f5.6. And it will slow down AF (I've noticed this comparing the 400f5.6 with/without the 1.4x on a 1D). I imagine for surfing you want fast AF - which suggests that a TC is not going to be a viable option for you.

If you are just doing surf photography with that lens, you're probably better off selling it at getting the 400f5.6.

As inkista said - you only really want to use the TCs with primes, you'll see less softening of the image.

[sk66]

The biggest issue is the loss of light. To compensate you'll need to use a higher ISO, but the noise increase will not be as apparent in well lit scenes. Because autofocus gets so slow (if it functions at all) I find it better to go to manual focus and "zone(trap) focus".

To be honest, I have better results with my Sigma 50-500 than with an 80-200 f2.8 with 2x, and I often get as good a shot by cropping/enlarging a pic taken with my 500mm f/4.5 when compared to using a 2x on it (usually due to focus)...

Sometimes I find the longer reach with the 2x necessary, but not that often.